DAVID BAMBER
David Bamber Headshot (left)
David Bamber as Dr James Swaby in Betty Blue Eyes (Photo by Catherine Ashmore) (right)
David Bamber currently stars in Betty Blue Eyes at Novello Theatre.
Date of Birth
19 September 1954
Place of Birth
Walkden, Lancashire
Did you go to training school, if so which one?
Drama degree at Bristol University 1973-6 and RADA 1977-79
Briefly tell us how you became involved with Betty Blue Eyes.
Richard Eyre sent me the script.
Briefly tell us about the character of Swaby you play in Betty Blue Eyes.
An unpleasant bigot, representing the reactionary side of Shepherdsford!
Your first stage performance
As a pig (!) in the nursery rhyme “Tom Tom the Piper’s Son” aged 5.
Career highlight to date?
Olivier Award for “My Night with Reg’ in 1995 but many many enjoyable times besides.
What roles would you most like to play?
Uncle Vanya and some Moliere.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Stop worrying about everyone else on stage.
What has been your most embarrassing moment on stage/TV/film?
A horrible 1st Assistant shouted at me on a TV set in 1986 for taking a sandwich from the tea table before the crew. He was revolting.
If you had not become a performer, what might you have done instead?
Teaching – but in a fantasy alternative life I would play oboe in a baroque orchestra.
Favourite after-show haunts
My living room, alas.
Who are your favourite actors/actresses?
Robert Donat, Alan Badel, Peter Cushing plus many living ones.
If you could meet anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be and what would you say to them?
My Grandfather George Wolfendale who was killed right at the end of World War I. I’d tell him about his family.
What was the last book you read, and name some of your favourite authors.
I’m in the middle of “Rubicon” by Tom Holland and expect to finish it any minute.
Favourite TV programs?
Silent Witness, The Good Wife and Location, Location, Location.
Favourite holiday destinations.
Bellagio on Lake Como. I’ve been 15 times!
Do you have any hobbies?
I play the piano and I am a slight gym obsessive!
Do you have any superstitions?
Not really.
Questions by Darren Dalglish
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